The icing was a make it up as you go. My wife said she threw in powdered sugar, butter, chocolate till she got the consistency she liked and then Voila! It was very tasty. The cake plate is a dark brown.

i was recently reading the history of paris-brest-paris, about both the oldest long distance bicycle race(paris to the breton city of brest on the atlantic),and the dessert(cream puff cake) the the race inspired in 1891.

while the bicycle race is exciting, it is the dessert itself that i find beyond fantasmic and simply spectacular. i haven't been able to get it out of my head for some reason and am afraid it will continue to haunt me until i give in and make it! have you made this petals? not counting patience what is the difficulty level> it is the creme chiboust which is new to me....seems futzy or tempermental...is it? is the dessert still always made in a circle to represent a bicycle wheel? any pointers are always appreciated.......thanks

joey

Edited by durangojo - 10/15/12 at 11:14am

food is like love...it should be entered into with abandon or not at all Harriet Van Horne

Joey, of all the recipes for Paris-Brest, I find Pol Martin (recipe cited) has the easiest technique. I will try to make one in the near future with pics if you would like. It is a nice recipe with a great taste. As for diffulty level ? On a scale of 10, its a 3-4. The only real factor here is your puff.

This is not something that is made often but it has a charm to it when served table side/sliced in front of clients.

Paris-Brest

Almond Sugar

1 cup icing sugar

1/3 cup slivered almonds

Cake Assembly

1 recipe cream puff dough

1 ½ cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 recipe Pastry Cream- (2 cups needed)

Place ingredients for almond sugar in small saucepan over low heat. Cook until mixture becomes caramel; stir constantly

Pour into oiled cookie sheet and set aside until cold. Break into pieces and blend in food processor until powdered. Store in airtight container until ready to mix with pastry cream.

Preheat oven to 375 F . Butter and lightly flour cookie sheet.

Use rim of 9’ cake pan to trace circle on cookie sheet. Fit pastry bag with large plain round tip and fill with cream puff dough. Tracing marked circle, squeeze out even ring of dough about 1 in wide.

Squeeze out two more rings; one on the inside, adjacent to the first ring and the other on top of both rings. Brush rings with beaten egg and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Place cake in oven and bake 45 minutes. Turn heat off and position door ajar; let cake stand another 45 minutes.

indeed your recipe is a lot simplier and easier than the ones i read. while i am actually very good at making choux pastry it was the creme chiboust that had gave me the jitters. my understanding of creme chiboust is that it is an italian meringue( normal meringue beaten with liquified sugar heated to the 'hard ball' stage so that it is just slightly candied), then combined with a pastry cream. any idea as to how italian meringue got into a french pastry? i will try your recipe first and let you know....i know this is most probably heresy, but i was thinking hazelnuts instead of the almonds....

again, thank you

joey

food is like love...it should be entered into with abandon or not at all Harriet Van Horne

I have a tip for you , whenever you decide to make the cake. When cutting the top off , make sure you don't cut half way , try to cut 1/4 off the top. Once you have the top off , you can pre-cut the cake top into individual servings. Once that is done you can easily place the pieces back on top of your cake for easy service.

Some folks like to peel some of the cake out to make sure it all fits, but its so airy and spongy you can easily get away with just a spoon , lightly patting it down a bit ( making a path) just remove some of the air, this will allow room for the pastry cream, toasted hazelnuts (if you want some crunch or texture).

You are talking about cooked meringue, the Chiboust I know of is basically the pastry cream and meringue (made with egg whites and sugar) done in a standing mixer. You can add melted chocolate to it, if you would prefer, or mango, orange zest or even liqueurs. Any time you mix fruit into it , it becomes a creme plombieres ( there are accents on these two words).

I believe that it's the look of the separate layers that give it its charm. Mind you making a chiboust is nice too.

Today I made Tarte Tatin. Do ever have days when you start off making something, you feel its going to go bad then all of a sudden, it worked, well today was one of those days. You just never know ...the minute you flip the plate, if the pie is going to listen to your beating heart which is saying " You better not stick to the bottom or I'm going to ....".

Wow, this is perfect petals. How could you ever imagine it going wrong? Looks mighty tasty.

@ K-girl: There are many patisserie places here that will make it for you upon request. Here is a little guide. Yes, you pipe it on the template (circle on parchment paper) . Can you use a spoon ? Good question, I guess you could. When using a piping bag you will get a more uniform design and you will have basically the same quantity dispersed at all sections of the cake. The third piping on the cake will give it the height that you need when baked.

To fill the cake, use a spoon (if you don't have a pastry bag) . Once the cake is cooked and cooled, slice the cake in half or a little higher than half, spoon out the pastry cream (must be chilled and thick) in all the spaces of the cake evenly, then add the whipped cream on top of that, then place the top back on. This is a type of cake that is best served the same day. Choux pastry is very light.

@ Joey: I'm glad you like the pic. The only goose that is cooked are the ones my uncle killed when he went hunting a week ago. It's open season here. lol.

I have found that choux works best when the eggs are at room temp and added one at a time till dough has become high gloss.

@ Scuba: Thank you, I love to cook, baking is part of it. There are so many areas in the culinary world I would love to master. Ummmm if only I had gone to culinary arts and not nursing....I'm here 13 years and it has been the best. ( I have had my days you know )

Honestly I've seen and tasted my share of tarte tatins, and yours looks absolutely perfect!! Which got me thinking: you being into desserts and flowers and petals and all that, have you ever heard of Alain Passard, the chef of "L'Arpege" in Paris? He invented a tart he calls "bouquet de roses" where the Apples are prepared to look like rose flowers:

Mignon !!! I promise you that I will attempt to make it. Will I have success ? That's a different story. This is kind of like a food challenge.
I will post the pie when I attempt to make it , be it the good, the bad or the ugly !

Desserts have a much larger role in the meal than in times past, they are an official course now and have become larger as well. Chefs are factoring portion sizes of the previous courses so that the customer is full after the dessert course and not the entree (hence justifying tiny desserts years past). I applaud this as pastry chefs often times save the day when a screw up happens with the hot food or desserts can send a great meal over the top. Nothing would ^*%&( me off more than a awesome meal followed by a generic slice of cheesecake and raspberry sauce. But if that is what you are seeking you will have to actually look for them as opposed to picking a random restaurant and hoping. There are many restaurants that only serve desserts in a tasting setting, and there are many (mostly super high end ones) that serve mini servings. Michael Mina and Jean-Georges for example. Someone like me would be happy to send mini versions of my desserts to the table, unfortunately with a service charge as they may screw up my mise en place, and force me to sacrifice a full serving of those desserts. Try asking your server if they could do something like this.